After my death our beloved Church abroad will break three ways ... first the Greeks will leave us as they were never a part of us ... then those who live for this world and its glory will go to Moscow ... what will remain will be those souls faithful to Christ and His Church.~St. Philaret of NY

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Can There Have Been Two Annunciations?

MR. XRISTIDIS

Can There Have Been Two Annunciations?
April 2, 2016 1:12 pm By Ralph Sidway140 CommentsThe
“second annunciation,” to Muhammad, is pivotal in Islam, marking the
beginning of his call as prophet. It is also one of the most significant
and revealing facts about Islam, one which deserves some exploration.

The First Annunciation

In addition to being Good Friday for Western Christians, last Friday
was March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to
the Virgin Mary, recounted in the Gospel according to Luke (1:24-38).
This event is pivotal, marking the beginning of the Incarnation and
God’s plan of salvation. From Luke’s Gospel:

Now in the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named
Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the
angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a
Son, and shall call His name JESUS.

“He will be
great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will
give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the
house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel
answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One
who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

“Now indeed,
Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and
this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God
nothing will be impossible.”

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

It is interesting that the Gospel
describes the angel Gabriel comforting the initially troubled maiden; he
wishes to immediately reassure her, describing the ineffable mystery of
the conception of the Son of God, as well as offering confirmation of
the validity of his annunciation through the news of Mary’s cousin
Elizabeth, who is nearing the third trimester of her own miraculous
pregnancy, “for with God, nothing will be impossible.” There is no
pressure, no coercion, and certainly no terror. Mary was free to decline
to cooperate with the message brought to her about her role in God’s
plan. Her humble acceptance sets the Christian revelation in motion.

The Second Annunciation

Jibril prepares to “press so tightly” Muhammad will think it means death.

Islam also begins with an annunciation of
sorts, to Muhammad, coincidentally also by a spirit being identified in
Islam as the angel Jibril (Gabriel). Only the nature and outcome of
that annunciation is quite different from the one to the Virgin Mary six
centuries earlier.
Just as in the first annunciation, this
‘second annunciation’, to Muhammad, is pivotal in Islam, marking the
beginning of his call as prophet. It is also one of the most significant
and revealing facts about Islam, one which deserves some exploration.
The first point which needs to be made is
the apparent purpose of the second annunciation. This second
annunciation unleashed a force which has sought to sweep away the entire
Christian Revelation, sought to replace the first and true
annunciation, while conquering the world for Allah.
The theological assault of Islam upon Christianity (what I term “theological jihad”) has been treated quite thoroughly elsewhere.
What I wish to focus on here, is precisely the character of this second
annunciation, in which — according to the claims of Islamic source
texts and dogma — the Archangel Gabriel came to Muhammad, setting in
motion the religion of Islam.
Before we consider this “second
annunciation,” we should first note the correspondence between the
Virgin Mary and Muhammad. The Virgin Mary bore the Word of God made
flesh, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Muhammad claimed to
have brought the words of God in book form, the Qur’an, which
Islam teaches pre-existed in perfect form with Allah before all the
ages, in what Islam calls the “Mother of the Book.” Thus, although we
can rightly compare Jesus and Muhammad in considering the character and
heart of Christianity vis a vis that of Islam, the actual theological
equivalence is between Jesus and the Qur’an, and between the Virgin Mary
and Muhammad.
But what is the nature of this second
annunciation? How does it comport with the first? What was its effect
upon the recipient? How did the spiritual being which came to Muhammad
approach him? How did Muhammad respond? Can we discern anything from the
answers to these questions?

Jibril — angel or demon?

The first “revelation” brought by the
spiritual being (which Islam teaches was the Archangel Gabriel) was an
overpowering, forceful and terrifying event, which occurred after
Muhammad had spent many days and nights alone in a cave in Hira,
worshipping Allah. The powerful spirit being which commanded him to
“read and recite” was frightening: Three times, Muhammad related, “He
pressed upon me so tightly I thought it was death” (Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, trans. by A. Guillaume, New York, 1980, p106. cf. Hadith from Sahih Bukhari, 5:96:5).
Significantly, Muhammad himself did not
at first believe he was being visited by the archangel Gabriel, thinking
rather that he was a victim of a jinn (from which we get the
word “genie”) or demon. He fled trembling back to his wife Khadija,
fearing for his life, crying, “Woe is me, poet [that is, oppressed by
demonic visions] or possessed!” (Ishaq, p106)
Muhammad became fearful and suicidal, but
was eventually persuaded by his wife Khadija and her uncle Waraqa (a
Nestorian heretic) that the messages were from God and that he was
Allah’s chosen messenger.
Khadija is credited with being the first
Muslim. That Muhammad then actively sought further encounters with the
being which assailed him is testimony to his willingness to open himself
up to the unseen realm. That he was so easily convinced by his wife and
uncle (and the forceful “being”) that he was specially chosen by God
and was not demonically oppressed or possessed shows that vainglory and
satanic deception had totally seized control of his mind and heart.
After this harrowing initial visitation,
there was a three year drought of “revelations,” during which Muhammad
suffered from suicidal depression and self-doubt. (Ishaq, p106. See
also this article at Answering Islam.)
By the time the “revelations” resumed,
Muhammad was predisposed to accept them no matter the cost. He
identified himself with the revelations, wholly placed his self-worth in
being the recipient of them.

Muhammad — a UFO “contactee”?

This is an interesting point, as
Muhammad’s response to the spirit being Jibril and its fierce and deadly
assault upon him closely parallels the experiences of today’s UFO
contactees and abductees. People who have seen a UFO, and especially
those who claim a “close encounter,” or to have been abducted, often
suffer from severe psychological trauma, depression, suicidal
tendencies, delusions and more. A very small number become acclimated to
the monstrous experience they have had, and some of them, like the
hapless Whitley Streiber, write books or otherwise aid in promoting the
demons’ UFO myth of a coming Great Disclosure and a new age to follow.
Uncanny how the UFO contactee phenomenon parallels the early career of
Muhammad.

The nature of the annunciation to Muhammad

Even this brief study reveals the
“annunciation” to Muhammad to be demonic in origin. Thus it is quite
clear that Muhammad was worse than just a false prophet and a fraud, but
rather became a willing and cooperative victim of demonic deception, if
not outright demon possession.
We know the rest of the story, all from Islamic source texts: Muhammad the warlord who beheaded over 800 Jews after one battle victory; the pedophile who married the child Ayesha when she was six years old, “consummating the marriage with her when she was nine years old; the lusty prophet who had eleven wives plus sex-slave concubines captured as war booty from defeated enemies; his numerous sexual perversions; the violent history of his successors,
who waged war amongst themselves even as Islam was spreading itself
through jihad across the Middle East and North Africa; and the ensuing
thirteen centuries of bloody and ruthless Islamic jihad and sharia which
multiplies its atrocities all around the globe, including now in Europe
and America.
All this reveals precisely the nature of this second annunciation.
By their fruits you shall know them.
_______Ralph Sidway is an Orthodox Christian researcher and writer, and author of Facing Islam: What the Ancient Church has to say about the Religion of Muhammad. He operates the Facing Islam blog.

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THE SISTER CHURCHES

The True Orthodox Churches of Romania, and Bulgaria, and with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and with the Synod in Resistance, are called by the Grace of the Lord to coexist in Mysteriological communion.

from §4 of “Schedule of Steps in the Union Process” Feb. 2014

VL AGAFANGEL PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Theotokos and all the Saints: keep our souls unharmed from the destructive influences of globalism, ecumenism, and sergianism, and give all of us the strength to endure the latest onset of persecution of the Church of Christ. Amen

QUOTE

"I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.”

St. John Chrysostom

QUOTE

"If we have a good priest (or bishop), we give thanks to God. If a bad one, we endure him".

- old Russian saying

QUOTE

"And here is something to which I would like to draw your attention to – something about which very many do not think about. Father Archimandrite Constantine, whom probably many of you know, the reposed editor of the journal “Orthodox Rus’”, a profound Christian mind, considered that the most terrible among all the achievements of the communists was that the communists created their own false-church, a soviet church which they shoved onto the unfortunate people in place of the genuine Church which went underground into the catacombs. Do not think that I am exaggerating or that Father Constantine was exaggerating!

Once, in the year 1918, a Pan-Russian Church Council was held. At this Council, the entire Pan-Russian Church together with its first holy hierarch, Patriarch Tikhon anathematized, excommunicated from the Church not only the theomachists and godless ones themselves, but also all those who would collaborate with them."

~St. Philaret of NY

QUOTE

"To the Russians abroad, it has been granted to shine in the whole world with the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father Who is in heaven, and thus obtain salvation for themselves. But if it does not perform this purpose and even abases Orthodoxy by its life, the Diaspora will have before itself two paths: either to be converted to the path of repentance, having acquired forgiveness through prayer to God and being reborn spiritually and to being capable of giving rebirth to our suffering homeland; or else being rejected by God and remaining in banishment, persecuted by everyone, until gradually it will degenerate and disappear from the face of the earth."

from Vladika John's report to the All-Diaspora Sobor in 1938

QUOTE

The apostasy of our times, to a degree unique in Christian history, is proceeding not primarily by false teachings or canonical deviations, but rather by a false understanding of Orthodoxy on the part of those who may even be perfectly Orthodox in their dogmatic teaching and canonical situation. A correct "Orthodoxy" deprived of the Spirit of true Christianity—this is the meaning of Sergianism, and it cannot be fought by calling it a "heresy," which it is not, nor by detailing its canonical irregularities, which are only incidental to something much more important.

- Russia's Catacomb Saints

QUOTE

Let it not be thought, however, that I affirm that it is necessary to prize every peace. For I know that there is a splendid disagreement and the most destructive unanimity. Yet one must love a good peace which has a good purpose: unity with God.

-St. Gregory the Theologian

QUOTE

... To pious Christians the fact that the world has fallen into godlessness is to them obvious, and they are ready to see it as an unfortunate historical inevitability ...

Professor Viktor Trostinkov

QUOTE

If you want to have assurance that you are saved, repent now that you are young and healthy and it is manifest that you left sin while you were still able to sin. But if you persevere in sin into your old age, why then you did not leave sin, but rather sin left you.

St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

QUOTE

Live in peace not only with your friends, but also with your enemies; but only your personal enemies, and not the enemies of God.

St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves

QUOTE

Judge not according to appearances, but judge righteous judgment.

St. John 7:24

QUOTE

"If Russia is not ressurrected, a new Golgotha threatens the whole world."

Priest Vladimir Evsukoff 1980†

QUOTE

A man who does not express a desire to link himself to the latest of the saints (in time) in all love and humility owing to a certain distrust in himself, will never be linked to the preceding saints and will not be admitted to their succession, even though he thinks he possesses all possible faith and love for God and for all His saints. He will be cast out of their midst, as one who refused to take humbly the place allotted to him by God before all time, and to link himself to that latest saint (in time) as God had disposed.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

QUOTE

SCOBA, to which world orthodoxy gives such great significance, reproaching us for not belonging to it, actually is in no way a canonical organ. The Russian Church Outside of Russia was invited to take part in these conferences; however, our Church refused to send representatives there after clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate were invited. "We never and nowhere will sit at one table with them; by this our spiritual communion with the Universal Church is not broken."

Archpriest George Grabbe 1969

QUOTE

"Let us always thank the Lord that we are in the Holy Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which throughout the 80 years of its existence has trodden the straight, royal path of God, without ever turning aside and losing its way."

QUOTE

The passions lying hidden in the soul provide the demons with the means of arousing impassioned thoughts in us. Then, fighting the intellect through these thoughts, they force it to give its assent to sin. When it has been overcome, they lead it to sin in the mind; and when this has been done they induce it, captive as it is, to commit the sin in action. Having thus desolated the soul by means of these thoughts, the demons then retreat, taking the thoughts with them, and only the spectre or idol of sin remains in the intellect. Referring to this our Lord says, 'When you see the abominable idol of desolation standing in the holy place (let him who reads understand)... (Matt 24:15). For man's intellect is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons, having desolated the soul by impassioned thoughts, set up the idol of sin. That these things have already taken place in history no one, I think, who has read Josephus will doubt; though some say that they will also come to pass in the time of the Antichrist.

Philokalia

QUOTE

There are three things that impel us towards what is holy: natural instincts, angelic powers, and probity of intention. Natural instincts impel us, when, for example, we do to others what we would wish them to do to us (cf. Luke 6:31), or when we see someone suffering deprivation or in need and naturally feel compassion. Angelic powers impel us when, being ourselves impelled to something worthwhile, we find we are providentially helped and guided. We are impelled by probity of intention when, discriminating between good and evil, we choose the good.

Philokalia

QUOTE

The outward Gospel of social idealism is a symptom of loss of faith.

Fr. Seraphim Rose

QUOTE

Impurity of intellect consists first in having false knowledge, ...

Philokalia

QUOTE

Isn't Marx really the third of a trio with Darwin and Freud as a practical source in the war against revealed truth?

Fr. Seraphim Rose

Letters, 1972

QUOTE

QUOTE

To: ROCA members from the MP

"You have to understand that you have long been in a false church, which implants in its members' souls, a false spirituality, which in turn takes root and grows stronger and stronger, the longer a man stays in it."

Bishop Athanasius, 2014

QUOTE

Mankind has gone mad, and we see with horror the abyss into which it is being drawn. Let us lay aside every worldly care, and let us fall down in prayer and readiness for the dread Judgment of the Lord. Death will not come with bombs and poisons. Death has already come and take up residence with us and in us, and has made corpses of us, Mammon has overwhelmed this sinful world, which is dominated by Queen Science, Lucifer himself, which with one hand makes medicines and machines for man's foolish happiness and with the other terrorizes him by means of the bomb! Such is the sorry state of knowledge and the agony of the world through and through. Let us lift up our hearts.

-Photios Kontoglou (†1965) letter to Dr. Cavarnos dated 5/10/57

QUOTE

"Psychopaths are a superior subspecies. We transcend humanity. We are Nature's Supermen. We deserve the subservience and availability of everyone around us. Luckily, every year 100-million people are born throughout the world. We have 100-million new choices every year."

-Sam Vaknin, self-realized psychopath

QUOTE

Our Saviour placed the Church in the world in order to save the world, and Satan is always trying to place the world into the Church in order to destroy the Church.

attributed to Desert Fathers

QUOTE

"If you see lying and hypocrisy, expose them in front of all, even if they are clothed inpurple and fine linen."

Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) of New York (1906)

HALL OF SHAME

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